Mbeki shows support for Mugabe with Harare visit
South African president Thabo Mbeki has highlighted his support for neighbouring African leader Robert Mugabe by visiting Zimbabwe just over a week after the country pulled out of the Commonwealth.
President Mbeki has continued to be supportive of Mugabe’s regime despite criticisms from many western countries about the lack of democratic government in Zimbabwe. Mr. Mugabe was accused of rigging the presidential elections that took place back in March last year, which led to his suspension from the Commonwealth.
His Zanu PF party has also been accused of gross abuses of human rights, and is held responsible by many critics for the worsening food shortages in the region.
President Mbeki will hold a one-day summit with his Zimbabwean counterpart to discuss bilateral issues and the situation inside Zimbabwe. According to reports he has no plans to meet Zimbabwe’s opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change.
Robert Mugabe withdrew his country from the Commonwealth after fellow members refused to lift Zimbabwe’s suspension during the biennial summit in Nigeria earlier this month. Several African countries, including South Africa, supported Zimbabwe’s reinstatement, and some commentators have seen today’s visit by President Mbeki as a slap in the face for Commonwealth leaders, including Tony Blair.
Mr. Blair claimed at the start of the month that continuing sanctions against Robert Mugabe would send ‘the right signal of strong disapproval for what is happening in Zimbabwe at the present time’.
Supporters of Robert Mugabe have claimed that only one out of 15 observer missions – the one commissioned by the Commonwealth – had identified problems during the presidential elections.
And they have claimed that any change in the country’s political governance must come from inside Zimbabwe. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2005, and the next presidential elections will take place in 2007 or 2008.
